Earlier quoted context omitted.
My question is what did Jon Gary do to get his whole name in there?
Leave the company shortly after it was founded?
Which, in retrospect, looks like it may have been smart enough to deserve the extra visibility.
HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#52The internet amplifies reputational risk. My guess is that if HBGary has any future they will at the very minimum have to change their company name. Reading some of the leaked emails provides (at least for me) a shocking insight into the dark side of the internet and how social networks can be abused for sinister purposes. Assuming HBGary isn't the only company involved in these sorts of machinations it raises some r…
My hunch is that this very social network and its close cousin reddit are being manipulated by groups following discordian ideologies. In short, it's being manipulated for fun and "profit." ("Profit" in the form of media-manipulation capability.) In other words, it's being manipulated for the LULZ. (By people who don't know how to analyze what they read and argue cogently.) The flavor of logic and discourse on this s…
By "Discordian," I'm thinking you mean the TAZ-theory and other stuff from RAW's other work, not so much the carefree pranksterism of the Principia Discordia, right? Either way, it's a model for which I hold such a low prior probability that it would take a lot of evidence to convince me, but the latter seems to have more internal consistency.
As for your link, people thought you were talking about the overreaching of the Tolkien estate; you were talking about what appeared to be a button taking sides in an imaginary cultural divide. Simple miscommunication.
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never made the connection with Ryder trucks, that's an interesting one. It's sort of a reverse Q-tip effect, where instead of your brand being generically associated with your product, it's associated with the worst possible thing it could be used for. Few products have been so spectacularly misused as to warrant such treatment. Anyway, my personal favorite has always been Philip Morris turning into Altria Group. I…
Some people get paid a lot of money to come up with names like Altria.
Now that's a job I'd want. Me and my n-gram generator. =)
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#54This is wildly irrelevant, but I have to ask: does anyone else experience profound irritation at the name "HBGary"? Every time I read the name, my reading flow stops and I stare at the name. HBWhat? Does that stand for something? Are they initials? Who is Gary? Are they from Indiana? It triggers this bizarre, deep-down irritation like nothing else I've ever seen.
I have the same problem with any company that has the word "solutions" in their name.
My problem with it is that by having the term "solutions" in your name, you have a clearly defined problem for which your company is the only answer. Invariably, I find that any company with the word "solutions" in their name cannot succinctly define what it is they do.
They imply they are the solution to something, but I just see it as a company founded by the marketing department.
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
The name comes from the three co-founders. The H is for Hoglund (Greg). The B is for Bracken (Shawn). The Gary is for Jon Gary who left the company shortly after it was founded.
Thank you for that. The name is still irritating to me, but at least now I know it's not nonsensical.
It is also indicative of how uncreative the founders were. To me, I intuit this as clear confirmation that it was a company founded with no strategy other than to suckle from the teat of defense spending.
How much you want to bet that the H. B. and G. of this company had ties/tenure in DoD or other governmental departments and were thus situated to reply to RFPs from their previous colleagues.
This is very common in the MIC.
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#56Some of the stuff he was doing was pretty clever, and he'll have no shortage of customers if he continues down that path. Taking on Anonymous for advertising purposes however has turned out to be not too bright. His former clients are distancing themselves as fast as possible, but next time they'll just make sure their payments can't be traced to them. "Oh, we didn't know he was doing such things". Bullshit....most c…
The government and large defence companies certainly do care about ethics. It's just a different 'kind' of ethics than you would normally envision. Its more about your appearance to the general public, and your market than anything else. If the general public perceives your action an unethical, then it is, and it is detrimental to your company.
I've worked for several defence contractors, and each one is crazy about ethical training. Monthly online ethics training courses are mandatory. Any perception of wrongdoing is incredibly harmful when dealing with the federal government. Billion dollar contracts are won and lost based on those perceptions.
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#57Who didn't see that coming after the embarrassing fiasco with Anonymous? I've been following this story pretty closely via Salon.com and the excellent series at Ars Technica and it seemed to be only a matter of time for Barr to make an exit.
Indeed. Ars Technica has been covering it in excellent depth. I'm just surprised it didn't happen earlier. From the onset, especially HBGary's reaction, it seemed the only way out was that Barr would be canned or step down.
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
My hunch is that this very social network and its close cousin reddit are being manipulated by groups following discordian ideologies. In short, it's being manipulated for fun and "profit." ("Profit" in the form of media-manipulation capability.) In other words, it's being manipulated for the LULZ. (By people who don't know how to analyze what they read and argue cogently.) The flavor of logic and discourse on this s…
By "Discordian," I'm thinking you mean the TAZ-theory and other stuff from RAW's other work, not so much the carefree pranksterism of the Principia Discordia, right? Either way, it's a model for which I hold such a low prior probability that it would take a lot of evidence to convince me, but the latter seems to have more internal consistency. As for your link, people thought you were talking about the overreaching o…
If I was talking about the estate, why would I be mentioning Evangelion?
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#59The internet amplifies reputational risk. My guess is that if HBGary has any future they will at the very minimum have to change their company name. Reading some of the leaked emails provides (at least for me) a shocking insight into the dark side of the internet and how social networks can be abused for sinister purposes. Assuming HBGary isn't the only company involved in these sorts of machinations it raises some r…
[deleted]
Re: HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
#60Some of the stuff he was doing was pretty clever, and he'll have no shortage of customers if he continues down that path. Taking on Anonymous for advertising purposes however has turned out to be not too bright. His former clients are distancing themselves as fast as possible, but next time they'll just make sure their payments can't be traced to them. "Oh, we didn't know he was doing such things". Bullshit....most c…
The government and large defence companies certainly do care about ethics. It's just a different 'kind' of ethics than you would normally envision. Its more about your appearance to the general public, and your market than anything else. If the general public perceives your action an unethical, then it is, and it is detrimental to your company. I've worked for several defence contractors, and each one is crazy about…
But they don't care about ethics for ethical reasons, they care about them for PR reasons...but maybe thats what you said.
My point was, many customers,the government included, would love to have some of this information, and access to social botnets. The background of the seller is irrelevant.
Of course your ethical training at work is top notch. I've done work at similar companies, and I have to pass ethical tests on a regular basis, yet, we have incidents that set records, in a bad way. If you think taking tests at work means your company is taking something seriously, you haven't been working long enough. :)